Fieldays 2016 launch addresses collaboration in industry

MEDIA RELEASE

Wednesday 6 April 2016

For immediate release

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Fieldays® 2016 launch addresses collaboration in industry

With only 70 days to go till the gates open on the Southern Hemisphere’s largest ag event, NZ National Agricultural Fieldays® 2016 officially launched this morning with a function at Mystery Creek to celebrate collaboration in industry, centring on Fieldays’ theme Collaborate to Accelerate Innovation.

The Fieldays 2016 theme highlights and celebrates New Zealand’s culture of working together in the rural sector in order to advance agriculture, both domestically and around the world, says NZ National Fieldays Society™ CEO Peter Nation.

“Forty-eight years ago there was a group of visionaries in the Waikato that decided to bring urban and country folk together to enable the advancement of agriculture,” says Nation. “I’m sure they’d be very proud of what Fieldays has become. But we must not rest on our quest to promote agriculture within our communities, within New Zealand and around the world.”

“By bringing all facets of the agricultural industry together in one place over four days, Fieldays is the platform on which everyone can meet and foster collaborative relationships. Fieldays prides itself on our focused pedestal to innovation and celebrates what this means to our industry, our country, our many innovative exhibitors, and the inventors that bring their innovations to our event.

“What will be shown to the world in 70 days’ time, on 15 June, may well contribute to revolutionise the future of farming.

“We value the strength of our relationships with many rural suppliers, manufacturers and innovators, and we’re proud to enable, through not only our event but 365 days a year, many rural stakeholders to come together to debate, challenge and collaborate on the future of the industry,” says Nation.

“With New Zealand’s dairy sector being hard hit recently, we believes it’s through collaboration that the rural communities with weather this blow.

“In this vein, Fieldays is a place where visitors and exhibitors are welcomed, to celebrate our industry – an industry that New Zealand has been built on and one we are incredibly proud of.”

In 2015, Fieldays contributed $142m to Waikato’s economy, and $396m to the New Zealand economy.

Launch Guest Speakers

The Launch was attended by guest speakers, Minister for Primary Industries Hom Nathan Guy, Stanford University’s Matt Rothe of FEED Collaborative and KPMG’s Global Lead Partner – Agribusiness & Food, Ian Proudfoot.

Hon Nathan Guy – Minister for Primary Industries

Minister Guy highlighted the opportunity to strengthen the bridge between urban and rural communities, increasing skills development and attracting and retaining young people in the agri sector.

Also covered were initiatives taking place around the world from collaboration – the Te Hono Movement happening at Mystery Creek Events Centre right now, the Shanghai Hub, key metropolitan market evaluation in the US, Trans-Pacific Partnership and the upcoming European Ministerial Conference to name just a few.

Minister Guy presented MPI’s brochure – Readying the Dairy Sector for Future Growth – Combining Efforts to Support Farmers, which has “captured all of the moving parts of the support that is available for our dairy farmers right now.”

For more information contact Phil Rennie, Press Secretary, on phil.rennie@parliament.govt.nz

Matt Rothe, co-founder, FEED Collaborative

Introducing FEED Collaborative, Rothe opens with, “We are focused on food system innovation and our point of view is relatively simple – we believe the food system is fundamentally broken. The work we do is trying to solve some of these really big, messy systemic problems.”

Rothe questions whether all of the technologies that have formed ‘agricultural advancement’ have actually helped. “I’ve concluded is that I think we’re trying to solve the wrong problem. The fundamental problem we’re trying to solve with all of this is to increase productivity and to reduce cost of our production. So we got to thinking – what would the right question be?”

He then goes on to challenge and inspire guests to think differently about innovation and to re-evaluate the ‘needs ladder’. “Reframe the question to open it up, to get at what we really care about,” says Rothe. “Then you get real innovation.”

For more information contact Rachel Middleton at Fieldays on media@fieldays.co.nz

Ian Proudfoot, Global Lead Partner – Agribusiness & Food, KPMG

Proudfoot asks, why do we need to collaborate, accelerate innovation and transform? “We need to transform the primary sector in New Zealand because we are the only developed country in the world that relies on the primary sector “to pay for our schools, to pay for our roads, to pay for our hospitals.”

“We need to have our primary sector on the edge of innovation, on the edge of technology, leading the world so that we are delivering the products that people will pay a premium for. We cannot be the same as everybody else.”

“The world is changing incredibly quickly. Relevant to Fieldays’ future, there has been rapid development of innovation looking for different ways to produce food that don’t involve interaction with animals.”

“Social entrepreneurs will change the food system. We’ve got to acknowledge there are new competitors coming into the market… Step changes are occurring in our industry…and this changes our competitors.

“There are step changes occurring in our industry…and this changes our competitors… What has been a farm to us, will not be a ‘farm’ in the future.”

For more information contact Ian on iproudfoot@kpmg.co.nz

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KEY INFORMATION:

Fieldays 15-18 June, 2016 fieldays.co.nz

The New Zealand National Fieldays Society® is a charitable organisation founded in 1968 for the purpose of advancing agriculture.

NZ National Agricultural Fieldays® will be held 15-18 June, 2016 at Mystery Creek Events Centre. Located just ten minutes from Hamilton, Mystery Creek Event Centre’s purpose-built facility is the ideal venue for the largest agricultural expo in the Southern Hemisphere.

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